Nadiyah:
Hi everyone! Welcome to our AI event. So today I've got Imisi joining us. Imisi, do you want to introduce yourself?
Imisi:
Yeah, sure. Hi everyone. My name is Imisi and I'm a recent computer science with AI graduate and incoming technology analyst and engineer at Deutsche Bank. And yeah, I love all things like technology and AI and things like that.
Nadiyah:
That's so cool. So I met Imisi at a book launch, I think it was two years ago, I think, and that's how we connected. So I'm Nadiyah and I'm from Hundo and I'm Head of Marketing. And yeah, I feel like me and Imisi met ages ago and I really found it super interesting with everything you did. And obviously you, at the time you were studying AI and obviously now you've graduated, so congratulations.
Imisi:
Thank you.
Nadiyah:
As a student studying AI, what specific skills and knowledge have you gained that makes you feel ready for future technology.
Imisi:
I think there's mainly three areas that make me feel more ready about the future of technology and things like that. The first would be learning about AI fundamentals and then getting to actually practice these in my degree. Because AI is essentially simulating human intelligence and that involves learning, reasoning, and correction to increase reliability and things like that. Since I chose to do computer science with AI, I had modules that included a lot of teaching about these fundamentals, as well as learning things like algorithms of technologies related to AI, such as natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision. Learning this theory and then getting to practice it through coursework strengthens my understanding a lot. I think the next thing is, always been encouraged to remain open-minded because AI is something that excites many people but is also something that terrifies many people. So although we weren't directly taught how to be open-minded towards AI, I think through my degree, like adopting an attitude of embracing change really helped me to be more open-minded to the benefits and possibilities of AI. And I think that this attitude of like excitement and curiosity rather than fear is a good skill to have, especially as I'm going into work in tech. I would also say that like gaining knowledge of ethics in different aspects of AI makes me feel more prepared because there's many ethical aspects like privacy, transparency, surveillance and that's been like kind of a key part of my learning as well. So I think that put me in a good place to be ready for the future and things like that.
Nadiyah:
Great, yeah, I find it so fascinating. So obviously I'm not, I'm from a non-technical background. So just like hearing people talk about something and even things that you mentioned in the question, it's just, yeah, it's just so fascinating. So can you share some cool examples of how AI is transforming various industries based on your studies?
Imisi:
Yeah, I think definitely AI has a wide range of uses. I would say that kind of generative AI and like personalization AI are two areas I find really interesting. Generative AI is probably a bit familiar to like people watching this. It's like the concept of AI basically creating something. So this could be like text, art or music and text generation is what chatbots like Chat GPT and like character.ai utilize. Chat GPT, you may have heard of, is like an increasingly popular chat bot and it generates responses based on prompts. And character.ai, which you might not have heard of, it does a similar thing, but it actually generates responses based on what they think movie and like book characters or famous people would say. So things like these are quite cool, I feel, gain an insight to AI and the fact that they're just readily available to the public. I think it's a great way to get like different perspectives, like find information and also help with tasks or just to use recreationally. Things like art and music generation tools also use prompts to generate unique pieces. So there's a lot of things that kind of generate like music based on you can say, oh, I want like an upbeat piece that focuses on this, and this or gives these kind of feelings. And it can generate a music piece for that. It can also generate like different art things, art pieces. So I think these areas are quite interesting and I learned a bit about them in my studies and more and more I'm learning about these tools and trying them out and that's quite fun. Personalization AI is also kind of a big part of what may be like available to us now. It's a big part of social media. So like you have your TikTok, your Instagram reels and YouTube shorts, which kind of use personalization to create like your for you pages or curate suggestions and things like that. So this does have a lot of like positive and negative aspects. But it's an area that I feel like is quite cool. and it definitely transformed the social media industry. So yeah, these are kind of two areas that I would say.
Nadiyah:
I have to admit I do love using ChatGPT for work. Sometimes you run out of ideas, especially in marketing. You just need something quick, just like quick posts, quick edit here and there. Now yeah, I definitely do love ChatGV, so I'm thankful we have that. So what is one of your favorite tool, AI tools to use? Because you obviously mentioned quite a lot, so I just want to know from your perspective, what's your favorite?
Imisi:
I think there's one I recently started using, it's called Dream Studio, and it's really cool. It's like an art generative AI. So you type in a prompt. So it could be like, if you want an image of a forest, for example, you can type like medieval type of forest with a moody atmosphere or something like that. And it will generate different images for you that. And you can also specify the style of art that you want, and then it will generate images for you to pick from, and you can edit different aspects. So I think that's probably my most recent discovery that I've found to be my favorite tool so far. Obviously, ChatGPT is great as well for just rephrasing things or asking questions. And on ChatGPT, I especially like... trying out different prompts. So using like explain this concept topic to a five-year-old. And I find like these opportunities really just kind of give me a different perspective. It makes things easier to understand. So I like it for that aspect as well. So
Nadiyah:
Yes.
Imisi:
I know I said two, but.
Nadiyah:
No, that's fine. I know that some of our team members like to use MidJourney to generate
Imisi:
Oh.
Nadiyah:
obviously images for our graphic design stuff. So yeah, there's so much out there. So what exciting possibilities do you see AI locking for the next generation and what excites you most about it?
Imisi:
I think since AI can fit into so many industries, like it currently benefits healthcare, finance, transportation, marketing, and different things, like even what you just talked about your coworkers using Mid Journey. So I think it will create new avenues for creativity and business, because you can almost now find an AI tool that will help you supplement your skills in different aspects of your work or your studies or things like that. And it is like the basis for more and more startups. So I think just like the prevalence of it, the diversity of AI to be integrated into almost every aspect of society, I think that will kind of unlock a lot of exciting possibilities. And that also excites me because I think if these benefits are kind of integrated into more areas of society, more applications that we use, it can definitely add value to them and increase engagement as well. And another aspect that excites me is I think that these benefits are becoming more accessible, like over, so I think that this will kind of happen over the next generation as well.
Nadiyah:
Definitely there's so much happening. I feel like, obviously, Hundo's helping young people learn more about tech and AI and stuff like that. And we wanna help them build skills so they know more about these industries. And I feel like we do need to have young people. learn from a younger age using these things and they shouldn’t be scared of using them. And even of what you'll find today, the speakers that we have, they'll dive more into these topics and they’re super interesting. So which AI roles or positions do you find fascinating and how do you believe AI will shape education and work for the future generation?
Imisi:
That's a good question. I think the automation aspect of AI does introduce risks of AI replacing certain jobs, because obviously it's available 24/7 and relatively consistent. But I think it will also create new jobs. Two jobs I recently found out about, I think will become very prevalent, are prompt engineer and AI ethicists. So prompt engineers are specifically people generate prompts or create prompts for generative AIs. So they come up with these prompts so that their outcomes that the AI gives will be more accurate and targeted and beneficial. I also think the AI ethicists will become quite a prevalent job because you want things like reducing bias and increasing data security compliance. Over the next generation, I think that AI will become more prevalent in personal use. So things like learning, fun memes, therapeutic, as well as like information resources and scheduling and checking for like spelling errors, things like that. I think it will be more prevalent in personal use. For education, I think it will encourage schools and exam boards. universities to improve their learning and assessment practices. And I think those students will also eventually, like as you were saying, from a younger age as well, be taught how to supplement their skills using AI, regardless of what they're studying or would like to pursue. I don't think it will be very much just like technical people or people from technical backgrounds trying to be interested and learning more. I think it will become more prevalent in education. So everyone knows a bit about it. For workplaces, if AI becomes cheaper to maintain, I think it will then be integrated into more business functions, including in the more traditional industries as well.
Nadiyah:
Yeah, I definitely agree. Especially like when I started, I had zero tech knowledge. My background was in marketing, so it's very non-technical. But obviously with like the use of AI and stuff, I feel like I've learned so much with using these tools and I feel like I understand language more, I understand more on the technical side. So I feel like, yeah, we should be, like we shouldn't segregate and have some people understanding and some people not. So I feel, yeah, it's really important from a young age to integrate in their learnings and then everyone feels included. So what are your thoughts on ethical considerations surrounding AI applications and how can we navigate these challenges while maximising the benefits because obviously you did touch a few while you were talking so you can dive more into it.
Imisi:
Yeah, I think if I look at two ethical issues that may mainly come up when you're thinking about AI or people talking about it, I think two ones would be like privacy and bias. So like privacy in terms of like the use and reuse of personal data, that's an ethical aspect that definitely needs to be prioritized because more complex systems are created. The fact that this is one of the first times in history where we have direct access to these things as they are being created, they're not used for some secret project or something. This means that informed consent is kind of harder to guarantee because how do you ensure that users actually understand what they're consenting to and the potential ramifications of using AI and things like that? So. This is because data collection is a huge part of AI in terms of maintaining accuracy and keeping up to date. I think we can navigate the challenge of privacy and consent through being more transparent. So trying to make AI more explainable to technical and non-technical users, as we were talking about. I feel like if more people understand what's kind of happening, like what... what it's about, not just, oh, I'm just going to do this, but, or how is it actually taking my input and giving me this output, or what is it used for in terms of how is my data being used? I think if more people understand that, then it can also help to reduce things like fears and biases surrounding AI, because then people can make better decisions about what aspects of AI they actually want to embrace. I think... The second thing was the bias. So that's a large ethical consideration in AI as well, because things like the training data used could have flaws in bias or represent biases in society that could end up programmed into AI. And we can improve this or kind of combat this by introducing proper procedures in place at the start of this. being reactive to bias, kind of taking a proactive approach to basically just stop this from happening or reduce the impact of this. I think also diversifying the workplace would be a good way to go with this because how would you, like, if you have more people representing society, creating these models, then you're more likely to spot where biases could be in different aspects, so things like race, gender, disability, just all aspects basically. If you have like a more diverse workplace creating these models, then they can maybe be able to spot these issues better.
Nadiyah:
Yeah, I definitely agree. So obviously you went into some of the businesses. So what potential benefits does AI bring to business and individuals in terms of being more productive and bringing innovation to the workplace?
Imisi:
I think AI is definitely something that is very supplementary. So if you can kind of improve business processes by kind of improving the creativity surrounding business processes, because if people have access to these tools that can help them in like a fun or like targeted way, then they can kind of focus more on the idea. generation, thoughts behind the process, rather than areas that they might just be stumped on. So for example, if you want to complete a task, instead of thinking exactly how to do it, you can get ChatGPT to plan out what you actually need to do in that, and then you can use your own knowledge and your own experiences to then fill out the different aspects of the task. So I think it can very much supplement different processes, more often on an individual basis, but things like helping workplaces as a whole, I think different industries can use technologies that AI provides to improve things like just the services that they offer. Since AI involves data collection, you can learn a lot more about your users and then you can make things like directed towards them. So yeah, I think these are like the main benefits and how it can impact people.
Nadiyah:
And previously you mentioned about obviously creative. So I just wanted to know from your perspective, how you think AI is gonna impact the creative industry and what your thoughts are on like music and art.
Imisi:
Yeah, I think there should, I see the benefits of the kind of like generative AIs I was talking about that create like music and art, but I still think there should be like a distinction of the kind of human spaces for this because obviously you can see like a potential issue arising in people who are artists, you know, like if an AI can just create this and what's the point. So I think there should be a definite distinction between human spaces for this. And I think to be honest, there already is because people still value the work of people. But for things that are more like business cases, like if you just wanna create a quick graphic for your work, or if you're working on a personal project and you wanna create a quick graphic, it can be beneficial in that sense. So it definitely has, it's like positive and negative aspects. But if we kind of define what, like create better regulations, for example, if you're gonna have like an art competition, just specify whether or not AI generated art is allowed in this and things like that. I feel like if we just create clearer rules now that these things do exist, then we won't run into as many problems regarding this.
Nadiyah:
Yeah, definitely. And now I want to go more into young people. So obviously, you're a woman in tech. So I wanted to what advice would you give young women watching this right now on how to go into the AI industry or even just in tech because I know in school when I was in school, boys were heavily pushed to like maths and technical stuff. I mean, as a girl, I was more creative like art. So what advice would you give young girls and what like what How did you get to where you are now?
Imisi:
I think the main advice I would give is that you should never just try to limit yourself because you think you're supposed to do something. I had a bit of a different background in that I went to an all-girls school, so it wasn't very much that I saw like all... I mean, I definitely noticed that there were less girls in the STEM-related classes, but it wasn't like I thought it's because boys should be doing it. I was just like, oh, okay, maybe less people are interested in it. But I've always wondered why. And I think an aspect that helped me to understand this a bit better is kind of when I was doing some tutoring and mentoring sixth form students. And a lot of people, a lot of girls especially have it in their mindset. Oh, if I'm not good at something, then I should just kind of like pursue things that I'm better at without considering potential interests and things like that. Just encouraging people that even though it may seem hard, just keep learning about it, keep going at it. Because if you're interested in something, you shouldn't have to stop being interested in it just because you think you can't do it. I recommend also learning a lot about the industry through different means. You can use AI to learn about AI, funnily enough. So now that some of these tools are more accessible, if you find an interest in it, you can look for them and use them. I recommend an application called Artifact as well, which kind of does like, it's an AI as well, and it does like personalized news updates and that can really help you to get a bit of an insight to what's going on in the industry. Every day you can just try and read like an article about it. So I think, yeah, just don't have it in your mind that you can't do it. And then also like be proactive in finding out more about the areas that you're interested in. I think those will be my two main pieces of advice.
Nadiyah:
Yeah, definitely. I think that's really good pieces of advice. And yeah, just like keeping up to date. So how do you keep up to date with like the tech world? Because obviously it's always changing. There's so many stuff happening. So how would you, how can our viewers keep up to date?
Imisi:
Yeah, definitely through looking at like using resources that can help. So like I mentioned Artifact, that's something I use pretty much daily. There's also so many tech newsletters that you can sign up to just to get some insights. I think TLDR is one that I use like daily as well. It just sends daily insights and you can sign up to different aspects of it. So if you're interested in like web development, you can sign up to that if you're interested in AI, it has an AI stream. So I think the best way to keep up to date is not actually just sitting down one day and going through it for five hours, it's more having that kind of daily five minutes, daily 10 minutes of time that you just dedicate to like learning about it, looking at your news, looking at the different things that are happening in the industry. I think those type of small amounts of time definitely accumulate. And it can also help you keep interested if you don't treat it like homework, if you more treat it like something that you just do like in your spare time. And it doesn't have to be that like time consuming or things like that. But as long as you're consistent with it and consistent with your learning, then I think that's the best way to keep up to date because it's such like a fast-paced industry. And I feel like it's so convoluted as well. the amount of people trying to get information that may or may not be true out there. So I think if you just kind of try to find these resources that you think will be beneficial to your learning and interact with them on a daily basis, I think that's the best way to, or that's the way that's worked for me for this.
Nadiyah:
Yeah, definitely. Like you said, there's a lot of fake news going around and it's just hard to know which is correct and which is wrong.
Imisi:
See you.
Nadiyah:
Obviously, Web3 space is a lot of communities and stuff. And obviously, the space is very heavy on like networking and everything. So how do you network and are you part of any communities like women in STEM or anything in general?
Imisi:
Um, yeah, so when we met, I was actually part of the global tech advocates. So that's how I've found out about the book launch and I got into the book and things like that. Um, so there's, there's definitely a lot of different communities. Um, I'm also a member of like color and tech. Um, and then the global tech advocates, they also have different subsections. So I'm part of women tech and then black women in tech as well. So there's a lot of different, um, communities out there. I'm also quite interested in product, so I'm part of a few product communities as well on Slack. So yeah, I think just how I find these communities, I look up on the internet or I go on LinkedIn and usually if you see someone posting about something they're interested in, you can just click on their profile and you can see what communities they're a part of. and you can go through the community website, see if that's something that you would be interested in. I definitely do recommend joining communities though, because that's the best way to gain access to events and areas where you can just learn more about things that you might be interested in or find out that you will be interested in. So yes, I definitely recommend joining communities.
Nadiyah:
Definitely because it's like a space for where you can all talk and communicate network you can even find jobs and there's a lot of good yeah so we're gonna round up now, can you tell me the top five things you're most excited about AI or in the tech industry for the future or even now?
Imisi:
I think, okay, first thing, I've talked a lot about generative AI. I think that could be quite interesting. I'm very excited for it because I feel like that's the part that, the closest thing that I can relate to the kind of simulation of human behavior and intelligence is like AI coming up with like a piece of work or like an art piece or music piece. So that area kind of really excites me. I feel like there could be a lot of benefits to that. Another area that really excites me is just creating different avenues for people to learn. So obviously ChatGPT and other chatbots out there are kind of opening up different spaces because people can just easily access them and learn more and even things like Google Bard as well. So there's a lot of different up and coming chatbots. I'm excited and I'm also looking forward to learning more about like the actions taken towards risk mitigation in terms of things like bias and also false information. Yeah, it's kind of weird to say that I'm excited about like false information, but I'm excited about like what's going to be done about just kind of increasing access to more honest and truthful information. And I think that maybe if chatbots can play a role in this as well, like if they kind of get better at being more reliable, I think that could be a potentially interesting part. I'm also interested in, I think this is the third or fourth thing, I'm also interested in the kind of like news generation aspects of AI, like the artifact Apple is talking about. I found that quite interesting because... There's a lot of news, like how do you know which news article to read? How do you know where to go for your information? So the fact that I can use something that brings my information to me and suggests things that I could be interested in. But it also doesn't just suggest things I'll be interested in. It also integrates different aspects I never thought of as well, because obviously you don't want to get into things called like filter bubbles. So I think... Just personalized news, personalized insights, just personalization in general is something that really interests me and excites me. I think that's gonna become more prevalent as the amount of information out there is increasing. So I think people will not just wanna stream through all of it, they would just want their data to come to them. And the final thing is probably the accessibility that AI could bring. especially in form of chatbots because a lot of students can or like a lot of school students could use it to learn about areas that they never knew they would have access to in an easier way. Accessibility as well in terms of if you use like the right prompts like if you use explain this to like a 12 year old or something. Like I was encouraging my little sister to use that because she was interested in physics. And it's just different things like that. So I feel like these technologies will make, will increase accessibility because you can kind of reach it on your own level and get that kind of like tailored insights depending on like what prompts you give. So overall quite interested in AI and specifically like the generative aspects and the kind of information giving aspects and the personalization. So yeah, I think this will be my main thing.
Nadiyah:
Yeah, it's such a ride. I feel like we're just at the beginning of the journey and I feel like there's just so much more to look forward to. And yeah, I can't wait to see what happens, especially with the regulation side and how we help maintain all that.
Imisi:
Exactly.
Nadiyah:
So yeah, I think the last question I have is, what is your dream job?
Imisi:
Oh what is my dream job? I think my dream job would be within the, definitely in technology. I'm very much passionate about technology, if you can't tell. I think it would be in a place where I can kind of just use like the curiosity I have about this and the like eagerness to learn about this to kind of make an impact, whether that is in helping towards like decision making or helping towards ethical considerations and like risk regulation and things like that. I don't think I have like a dream job title in that sense, but I definitely would like to be in a space where I can help with different AI products and aspects of AI and just kind of help them to consider all bases. prior to release and consider ethics and risks as well.
Nadiyah:
I can definitely see it as an AI officer or something doing all the regulations and stuff. Imisi, it's been lovely speaking to you and I can't wait to see all the amazing things you do in the future. Where can our viewers connect with you? Do you want to share your socials or the best place just in case they want to ask you questions or know more about your journey?
Imisi:
Yeah, I'm happy for you to connect with me on LinkedIn. It's just my name, Imisi Fakunle. So, should I spell it?
Nadiyah:
Oh yeah, you can spell it, yeah.
Imisi:
Okay, it's I-M-I-S-I, and then F-A-K-U-N-L-E. So if you just search that up on LinkedIn, you'll be able to find me. And yeah, I'm happy to answer any questions there.
Nadiyah:
Well thank you so much for your time, Imisi. It's been lovely talking to you and we definitely need to catch up and meet in person now Covid's over
Imisi:
Yeah, definitely.
Nadiyah:
and we'll plan something. And yeah, thank you so much. To find out more, obviously follow Hundo and we've got all our amazing speakers and our agenda for the rest of the day. And you can watch this on-demand if you miss the live event. So thank you. Bye!
Imisi:
Thank you.
